Oh God! It can be frustrating to read people giving advice based on books they've read. There has been so much bad advice given on pruning over the years it is boggling to the mind and a lot of it is published and written by pedigreed specialists. Fortunately things are getting better in the information coming from places like Cornell if you search for advice for commercial growers- the stuff for the home grower tends to be quite uneven. Different cherries have different growth habits and cherries are amongst the most difficult trees to prune to the most productive shape. I struggle to achieve good productivity from a reasonably compact tree but at least the first years don't have to be complicated. It is most likely that your tree will become an open center tree even if you try to maintain it as a central leader, but if you train it originally as a central leader for the first 2 years using the ratio formula I've suggested you will have a leg up producing a productive and compact tree. If you want an open center from the get-go, just plan to cut the central leader to a scaffold after 2 years. Cherry trees usually only need 3 scaffolds to harvest the full 360 of available light. The real goal of pruning any fruit tree in my opinion is to produce a tree with the maximum amount of well lighted fruiting (small) wood and the least amount of structural (large) wood. Basically harvesting the most light with the least "infrastructure".

robiniaquest, this is for wayne (and all, too) I could swear the other two were NS. I googled both and learned a bit more. Most nursery sites say it was introduced by the U of Minn (I always knew that somehow) in 1950 (didn't know that long ago). A few sites say they were introduced later. I don't know how I got it in my head that's what I wanted all those years ago or why I ended up with the first two, must have read about them somewhere, called the local nursery, awful I can't remember now, do remember exactly what I paid for them then and planting them. I could swear they were NS, but these new ones look a little different starting out. Two are plenty for me. They often ripen during the horrid hot days, and I often just don't bother to pick them. I just like to watch them grow and have a few, never learned to make jam or jelly. All I ever do is make pies with them. A lady used to stop every year and ask if she could have enough for a couple of pies; I always let her. An old friend from church for years used to pick and pit them for me (he grew up on a farm), then we'd split them, but I think he kept the lion's share. I'm going to try to keep more for myself if these do anything. They have to be easy to can, and I still have a pitter, but it is work. Usually we just froze them but I don't have a big freezer and see no point in getting one now (one more thing to keep clean and worry about). This variety is quite sour, and I found diluting the juice with water and using plenty of sugar helps, then thicken with cornstarch before I bake the pies, just guess the right amount. I hate it when I guess wrong or the cornstarch doesn't work right and they're soupy. Pies are a lot of effort but the kids and I love them. The fruit is not as plump as the old standards (which I prefer flavorwise), too hard to pick from those big trees; people don't have them any more around here. I also checked Montmorency, edenfoods promotes it as very healthy, you know how it is when you are used to something, you don't want to switch. They had those out at HD, too. I just liked these and never had to care for them at all. I did call the extension office today, and he asked did we mow around them, yes, I remember not being careful when I did the mowing, that could have caused the gall, said not to worry, pull the mulch out 2-4 inches, fertilize with something slow release, thought my rose fertilizer would work. I vaguely remember they might have suckered a little, maybe not. My apple tree nearby is awful. Don't get a Jonadel like I did. They are good but not as good as Jonathan imo. I wish I had more room for fruit trees. I have an old apricot tree that has just budded out and next week the temps are supposed to dip to 33. I seldom get any, but when I do they are wonderful. Moorpark. People had some hardier ones with much smaller fruit, but nobody likes to bother with the messes any more. They would rather steal mine if I get any. My mother used to adore white peaches when people would let her have some (nobody has those any more I know of), and canned them. I wish I could have those, grapes, peaches, one pear tree, more varities of apple. I have a farm and can't live on it by myself. I tested the waters on that, planted things, couldn't get back to water them, and all died but one, no fruit trees that time. It's 50 miles away. My dad had the same trouble, one apple tree he planted still bore fruit, but all his cherry trees died from neglect. My dad would have loved to live on his farm; I feel bad that he was never able to, used to talk about setting up a trailer and spend weekends there, I think my mom wanted no part of it. It's frustrating to have a passion for something and not enough room and no one to share it with and making posts that are too long.

I called again and finaly got a hold of the timber appraiser doing my neighbor's deal. He did not even offer to come look at the tree, and basically told me that I would be lucky to break even on it by the time I got it down and to a mill. Come on. I know this is not a lottery ticket. Yes of course there are expenses and deductions, but there will already be a logging crew 800 yards away doing a job, and there are two sawmills here, one within 10 minutes and one within 30...which is likely where my neighbor's trees are headed. I guess this appraiser already knows there just won't be any room for an extra tree on that flatbed truck. I refuse to believe that I should just GIVE this tree to the loggers and be glad of it. If I can get even a few hundred dollars for such a quality (assuming) tree and avoid a potential threat to my house then I think that's a fair deal, especially if there's a crew doing this very thing right next to my back yard at the time. The response I got from the appraiser was somewhat unexpected as he was very dismissive, as if I was wasting his time. I had hoped he could have at least come by the house to see it for himself, evaluate the tree and give me some advice. He lives about 10 miles away, after all... He's getting a 7% cut off this timber sale, with or without my tree tossed on that heap, and the irony of all this is that the day he and my neighbor were doing their walk-through, the reason they stopped to talk with me was because he wanted to know if I had any trees back there that I would be interested in including in the sale. I thought of the cherry right after they left. Now I feel like I'm wasting my time and should just drop it and make another habitat brushpile, an equally good use, in my opinion.

Your tree looks great there is no right or wrong form of JM..that being said ( to may make mowing easier) i would cut off all the vertical very low branches ( two on right one on left) As well as any other lower ones that seem to be ( but it's hard to tell ) ;>) coming out in mass along with a much larger branch or where a branch that was cut ...just keep the biggest one in a branch forest. Otherwise i wouldn't mess with it ... I have no idea where you be from but if still cold there and dormant you'd better get going if you want to do it now ...or wait til next fall after leaf drop David